The present invention relates to a medical instrument used for harvesting biological tissues and a medical system including the medical instrument.
Biopsy techniques, in which biological tissues are harvested from a lesion site of a patient and tested in order to make a diagnosis of the disease condition of the patient, are widely known. The harvesting of biological tissues is carried out by introducing a biopsy instrument having a diameter set small, such as biopsy forceps or a biopsy needle, into a living body under an image captured by an imaging device such as an endoscope and subsequently performing puncture with the biopsy instrument to a target site to harvest biological tissues. Therefore, it is preferable for the biopsy instrument to have a structure with enhanced puncture performance so that puncture can be easily performed into biological tissues, and a biopsy needle or the like in which a helical groove is formed at the distal end has been developed for example (such as described, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-275175).
On the other hand, in some cases, it is preferable to make a diagnosis based on as many biological tissues as possible to obtain an accurate diagnosis result in the case of making a definitive diagnosis of a disease by a biopsy technique. Therefore, plural times of puncture to a target site are often carried out in order to ensure more biological tissues. However, it is not preferable to unnecessarily increase the number of times of puncture in terms of the invasiveness and the working efficiency.